Praying for the Holy Spirit

Monthly Archives: October 2016

We’ve all heard the allegations: Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that escaped church suppression. Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety.

It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on October 31–as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Solemnity of All Saints, or “All Hallows,” falls on November 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to November 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland.

Saint Odilio of Cluny

The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, “All Hallows Even,” or “Hallowe’en.” In those days Halloween didn’t have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.

In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in southern France, added a celebration on November 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.

So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory. What about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered–even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the church calendar.

But that still isn’t our celebration of Halloween. Our traditions on this holiday center on dressing up in fanciful costumes, which isn’t Irish at all. Rather, this custom arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval Europe was hit by repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague–the Black Death–and it lost about half its population. It is not surprising that Catholics became more concerned about the afterlife.

A Danse Macabre

More Masses were said on All Souls Day, and artistic representations were devised to remind everyone of their own mortality. We know these representations as the “danse macabre”, or “dance of death,” which was commonly painted on the walls of cemeteries and shows the devil leading a daisy chain of people–popes, kings, ladies, knights, monks, peasants, lepers, etc.–into the tomb. Sometimes the dance was presented on All Souls Day itself as a living tableau with people dressed up in the garb of various states of life.

But the French dressed up on All Souls, not Halloween; and the Irish, who had Halloween, did not dress up. How the two became mingled probably happened first in the British colonies of North America during the 1700s, when Irish and French Catholics began to intermarry. The Irish focus on Hell gave the French masquerades an even more macabre twist.

But as every young ghoul knows, dressing up isn’t the point; the point is getting as many goodies as possible. Where on earth did “trick or treat” come in? “Treat or treat” is perhaps the oddest and most American addition to Halloween and is the unwilling contribution of English Catholics.

During the penal period of the 1500s to the 1700s in England, Catholics had no legal rights. They could not hold office and were subject to fines, jail and heavy taxes. It was a capital offense to say Mass, and hundreds of priests were martyred.

I wonder if they make a Guy Fawkes Halloween mask…

Occasionally, English Catholics resisted, sometimes foolishly. One of the most foolish acts of resistance was a plot to blow up the Protestant King James I and his Parliament with gunpowder. This was supposed to trigger a Catholic uprising against the oppressors. The ill-conceived Gunpowder Plot was foiled on November 5, 1605, when the man guarding the gunpowder, a reckless convert named Guy Fawkes, was captured and arrested. He was hanged; the plot fizzled.

November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, became a great celebration in England, and so it remains. During the penal periods, bands of revelers would put on masks and visit local Catholics in the dead of night, demanding beer and cakes for their celebration: trick or treat!

Guy Fawkes Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. But by the time of the American Revolution, old King James and Guy Fawkes had pretty much been forgotten. Trick or treat, though, was too much fun to give up, so eventually it moved to October 31, the day of the Irish-French masquerade. And in America, trick or treat wasn’t limited to Catholics.

The mixture of various immigrant traditions we know as Halloween had become a fixture in the United States by the early 1800s. To this day, it remains unknown in Europe, even in the countries from which some of the customs originated.

But what about witches? Well, they are one of the last additions. The greeting card industry added them in the late 1800s. Halloween was already “ghoulish,” so why not give witches a place on greeting cards? The Halloween card failed (although it has seen a recent resurgence in popularity), but the witches stayed.

So too, in the late 1800s, ill-informed folklorists introduced the jack-o’-lantern. They thought that Halloween was Druidic and pagan in origin. Lamps made from turnips (not pumpkins) had been part of ancient Celtic harvest festivals, so they were translated to the American Halloween celebration.

The next time someone claims that Halloween is a cruel trick to lure your children into devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of All Hallows Eve and invite them to discover its Christian significance, along with the two greater and more important Catholic festivals that follow it.

Father Augustine Thompson, O.P., is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. BA, MA, The Johns Hopkins University; BA (Philosophy), MDiv, Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology; PhD, University of California, Berkeley; STM, Order of Preachers, 2007.

From the American Society For the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

Written by John Horvat II Created: 27 October 2016

I would see him from time to time at events and meetings in Washington D.C. He was a seven-foot-tall African gentleman who was always very courteous and soft-spoken. He had a stately bearing that was at the same time dignified and disarming. I am told he was very pious and could often be seen at Mass or with a rosary in his hand. He commanded respect, but it was not difficult to walk up and converse with him. A couple of times, I had the honor of speaking with the king.

Indeed, he was a king, a Catholic king who was, in fact, the last anointed African king living. It was with great sadness that I heard the news of the death of King Kigeli V of Rwanda, 80, who passed away recently at a Washington-area hospital.

The news set the stage for some reflections.

I reflected upon how his life was one of turmoil and suffering, which he bore well. He became king in the turbulent times of African independence when revolutionary liberation movements were wreaking havoc on the continent. Rwanda was not exempt from the unrest. Soon after independence, ethnic rivalry led to the forced exiling of many Tutsi tribal people. The departing Belgian administrators added to the confusion by arranging King Kigeli’s exile in 1961. This was followed by the typical succession of “democratic” African governments that culminated in the 1994 wave of anarchy and mass killings in which as many as a half million civilians, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered.

In exile, the king did not lead an ordinary life. He respected the Rwandan tradition that an exiled king does not marry and thus remained single. Most of his time in exile was spent helping Rwandan refugees. Foremost in his mind was working toward the unity of his suffering people.

What impressed me about the king was that you sensed he was sincere and authentic. He was not a politician who was looking to build a career. Deprived of his considerable wealth in Rwanda, he lived humbly and had nothing to gain by advocating the cause of his people.

He was what sociologists call a “representative character.” Noted philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that such characters “are, so to speak, the moral representatives of their culture and they are so because of the way in which moral and metaphysical ideas and theories assume through them an embodied existence in the social world.”

These figures exist in every society including our own. No one elects them. They are natural leaders who can take the principles, moral qualities, and virtues desired and needed by their communities and translate them into concrete programs of life and culture.

There is no doubt in my mind that the king was one of these unassuming representative characters. He was truly a moral representative of his culture. This was recognized by many Rwandans who asked that he be allowed to return and even serve as a unifying figure in the fragmented central African nation.

The history of his life is very important, but it was not these details that struck me upon hearing the news of his death. The passing of King Kigeli V was a tragic reminder of how far we as a nation have descended.

I remember seeing the king with his calm demeanor and dignity sitting in an armchair. Reflecting upon this scene, I cannot help but think about how I, as an American, somehow feel much more represented by this foreign figure than American counterparts. King Kigeli personified so many of the qualities missing in today’s political discourse: honor, dignity, longsuffering, piety and self-sacrifice. The contrast between this tall African gentleman and the present political contenders could not be more striking.

Everyone senses this difference when comparing our past and current standards of political behavior. No one is happy with the situation. Looking at the current election cycle, so many Americans are experiencing frustration, exasperation and anxiety at what is happening. They wish the whole thing was over.

It used to be that honorable presidential candidates presented themselves for election. They used to address each other politely. Courtesy and civility were considered political virtues, not weaknesses to be exploited. Candidates did not engage in dishonorable lying or promiscuous personal conduct. People used to feel they could be represented by the figures presented to them.

But today all that has changed. The change is part of the political culture of both parties varying only in degree. Everything has become so brutal and frenzied. There is no longer thoughtful debate but rather programmed sound bytes and tailored tweets to attract the attention of the distracted masses. We have turned the election into a political wrestling match, no holds barred.

Instead of the representative characters, we now have unrepresentative characters who do not represent what we want to be. The race has become another one of those lesser-of-two-evils slugfests of voting against the most unrepresentative candidate.

Of course, it is not only the candidates’ fault. We brought ourselves to this point by embracing a culture of frenetic intemperance in which everyone wants everything instantly and effortlessly. Lifestyles of gratification and self-centeredness bring out the worst in us. All this is tearing our society and economy apart. It is eroding the faith of millions. We see it affecting the political process.

However, this culture is imploding. It is unsustainable and weighs heavily upon the land. Its chaotic discourse tires us out and awakens in us longings for a return to order. When the disorder reaches its climax, and things come crashing down, it is important that there be figures like the king who will remind us of what we have left behind. Then we will look for those representative characters that represent that which is still good in America. The qualities found in good King Kigeli V (and needed by so many of our elected officials) will again be appreciated and valued.

And in the meantime, let all who read this say a prayer for the repose of the soul of the pious Catholic king. May God grant him eternal rest. Even in death, he showed magnanimity. Those wishing to donate for his funeral expenses are advised by the King’s website to consider applying them first to “educational institutions that support Rwandan students in His Majesty’s name.”

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

I found this the other day and wanted to think more about it before posting it. – The funny thing is; I am a very astringent opponent of Frankie-The-Hippie-Pope and also, I am very supportive of and a great admirer of Vladimir Putin. I had never put the two thoughts together on the same mental page! Check this out:

Catholics who are anti-Francis but love Putin

from The Vatican Insider

giacomo galeazzi – andrea tornielli

rome

The glue that holds them together is their aversion towards Francis. The world of Francis dissenters ranges from Lefebvrians who have decided to “wait for a traditional Pope” before renewing their communion with Rome, to catholic regionalists who compare Francis to his predecessor Ratzinger and promote the campaign “Benedict is my Pope”.

Then there are the ultra-conservatives of Fondazione Lepanto – a foundation that aims to protect the principles and institutions of the Christian civilization – and websites that share sedevacantist positions, adamant that the Catholic writer Antonio Socci was right to argue that Bergoglio’s election is invalid, simply because a vote was cancelled without a scrutiny in the march 2013 Conclave. This was because one of the cardinals mistakenly placed an extra ballot in the ballot box. The voting resumed immediately to wipe away any doubts and without any of the cardinal electors raising any objections. Prelates and traditionalist intellectuals have signed appeals or protested against the Argentinian Pope’s open pastoral attitude with regard to communion for remarried divorcees and dialogue with the Chinese government.
Opposition to the Pope unites people and groups that are very different among them: soft criticism is expressed by online newspaper La Bussola Quotidiana and monthly newspaper Il Timone, directed by Riccardo Cascioli. The Argentinian Pope is also reproached almost on a daily basis by L’Espresso’s former Vatican affairs journalist Sandro Magister. Then there are the revelatory and mocking comments made by Maria Guarini in Italian blog Chiesa e Postconcilio and the harsher criticisms made by ultra-traditionalist and sedevacantist groups, those who believe there has not been a worthy Pope since Pius XII. Italian newspaper La Stampa visited the places and protagonists of this opposition to Francis which is contained in terms of numbers but widespread on the web. Those behind this opposition, use the Internet and private meetings between clerics, combining frontal and public attacks with more articulate strategies. Alessandro Gnocchi, who writes for the Riscossa Cristiana and Unavox websites, is on the frontline of web criticism against the Pope: “Bergoglio is systematically surrendering the Church to the world, the Church is becoming worldly. His pontificate is based on the brutal handling of power. Never has the faith been so debased.”

Opposition headquarters
Fondazione Lepanto, located between the paleochristian walls of St. Balbina Basilica on the Aventine Hill is one of the cultural power houses of anti-Francis sentiment. The foundation’s books combined with the Corrispondenza Romana news agency and the meetings held in the sitting room on the first floor, make it one of the headquarters of the anti-Bergoglio front. “The Church is going through one the biggest moments of chaos in its history and the Pope is one of the causes of this,” says historian and President of Fondazione Lepanto, Roberto De Mattei. This chaos is above all to dow itht he Pope’s magisterium. Francis is not the solution but part of the problem.” Opposition, De Mattei added, “is not just being expressed by these so-called traditionalist circles extends to bishops and theologians who were trained according to the Ratzinger and Wojtyla schools of thought.”

De Mattei prefers to refer to it as “resistance” rather than “dissent”. This resistance was recently expressed by 45 Catholic theologians and philosophers who criticized the apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” and by 80 figures – who gradually turned into several thousand – including Catholic cardinals, bishops and theologians, who made a declaration of “loyalty to the unchanging magisterium of the Church”. One of the hotbeds of resistance, the historian underlined, “is the John Paul II Institute for the family, whose heads were recently removed by Bergoglio”. Traditionalists are also targeting Francis for the part his migration policy is playing in destabilizing Europe and obliterating western civilization.

Political-theological opposition
The attack against Francis is global. “There is a strong geopolitical element in the circles that oppose Francis,” observes Agostino Giovagnoli, Professor of Contemporary History at the Università Cattolica and expert on dialogue with China. They are accusing Bergoglio of not proclaiming the truths of the faith with sufficient vigour but in reality they are blaming him for not defending the West’s primacy. This opposition has political motivations that are masked by theological and ecclesial questions”. China is an example of this. “There is an alliance between Honk Kong circles, sectors within the US and Europe’s right-wing: they are accusing Francis of putting the goal of uniting the Church in China before the defense of religious freedom,” he continues. Such positions are often expressed by Catholic news agency Asianews. These critics say the Pope should affirm religious freedom as a political argument against Beijing instead of seeking dialogue through diplomatic means”.

Opposition – which also finds backing in the Curia –is also being voiced by clerics with Vatican connections, such as the liturgist and theologian Fr. Nicola Bux, a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Office of Liturgical Celebrations. “Today, there are quite a few lay people, priests and bishops are asking themselves where we are headed,” he tells La Stampa. In the Church, it has always been possible to express one’s opposition to ecclesiastical authorities, even the Pope. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini notoriously put his opposition to the reigining Pope in writing too but John Paul II never removed him from his post as Archbishop of Milan, nor did he consider him a conspirator.” The Pope’s job, Bux continued, is “to safeguard ecclesial communion, not to favour division and rivalry, siding with progressives against the conservatives”. “If a Pope upheld a heterodox doctrine, cardinals in Rome could declare his fall from office”. In a rippling crescendo, researcher Flavio Cuniberto – who has authored a book criticising the Pope’s social magisterium, is a scholar of René Guenon and of traditionalism close to the esoteric right – recently launched a protest in Italian newspaper Il Giornale. He stated that “Bergoglio has not updated Catholic doctrine, he’s destroyed it and acts as though he is a Catholic but is in fact not: the distorted idea of poverty elevates old pauperism to the dogmatic sphere.” The Pope praises recycling and thus “the virtues of the good late-modern consumer become the new evangelical virtues”.

Theories about the two Popes
On his official Facebook page, Antonio Socci claims that Benedict XVI did not really want to resign but still considers himself Pope and wants in some way to share the “Petrine ministry” with his successor. Ratzinger himself has denied this interpretation outright on more than one occasion between February 2014 and the recent interview-length book “Final Conversations”, confirming that his resignation is completely valid and publicly demonstrating his obedience to Francis. The theory was fueled by the interpretation drawn from some words pronounced last may by the Prefect of the Papal Household and Benedict XVI’s secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein. During a book presentation, Fr. Georg stated: “There are not two Popes therefore but an extended ministry, with an active member and a contemplative member.” Socci published Bergoglio and Ratzinger’s photos next to each other with the caption: “Which of the two?” He went on to write: “One contrasts love and the truth (Bergoglio), while another sees them united in God (Benedict XVI)”.

Among the many comments to these remarks, Paolo Soranno wrote: “Francis I seems to be serving God Rainbow (who does not impose religious and moral principles) and not the Catholic God.” The opposition intensifies on the web, with people letting all fury loose protected by their computer screen, as was apparent from some comments beneath the articles posted on social networks. The “messainitaliano” website, which promotes the old liturgy but also publishes vitriolic comments on the Pope, speaks about the “tedious ideological monotony of the current pontificate”. On the web, one comes across comments about the Church eventually dissolving into some kind of a UN of religions with a touch of Greenpeace and a hint of a trades union organization, given that “today, moral sins are downgraded and Bergoglio established social (or socialist) sins as well”. Maria Guarini’s ultra-traditionalist blog “Chiesa e Postconcilio” publishes titles such as: “If the next Pope is Bergoglian, the Vatican will become a Cathomasonic branch”. The opposition comes from the more conservative side of the spectrum but also finds a voice among some disappointed ultra-progressives.

Such is the case of the Ambroasian priest Fr. Giorgio De Capitani, who relentlessly attacks Francis from the left and does not therefore be included in the groups described so far. He tears the pontificate to pieces and feeds it to the wolves. “How many useless and obvious words. Peace, justice and goodness. The Pope is really getting on our nerved with all these tear-jerking words and gestures. Francis is a victim of his own consensus and all he is doing is creating illusions, pulling the wool over our eyes, steals some applause and fills some nincompoop journalists who know nothing of the faith, with rapture”. Journalist Giuseppe Rusconi reflected: “is our Shepherd really above all “ours” or is he not showing that he favours the indistinct global flock, thus being perceived by non-Catholic public opinion as a leader who responds to the wishes of contemporary society? Is he doing it as part of a Jesuit strategy or out of personal choice? And when the shepherd returns to the pen, how many sheep will be bring with him? And how many of those lost will he find?” This mixed opposition has identified some bishops and cardinals as reference points. On his blog, Magister put Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah forward as a papal candidate. Sarah is currently Francis’ liturgy minister and is much loved by conservatives and traditionalists who often quote him on their websites and publications.

Risk of a schism?
Among those considered pole stars, are first and foremost US cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Athanasius Schneider. But beyond the amplified stories present on the web, there do not seem to be any further schisms on the horizon, after Bishop Marcel Lefebvre’s in 1988. Sociologist Massimo Introvigne is adamant about this: “There are more than 5000 Catholic bishops in the world, only about ten of them are active in their opposition, many of whom are retired, which shows that it is not substantial.”

Introvigne claims that this opposition “is present both on the web and in real life and is overestimated: there are dissidents who write comments on social networks using four or five different pseudonyms, to give the impression there are many of them”. According to the sociologist, the movement “is not successful because it is not united. There are at least three different kinds of opposition.: the political opposition of American foundations, the opposition of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini who are not particularly interested in liturgical or moral issues – they often do not even go to church – but in immigration and the Pope’s critiques against turbo-capitalism. Then there is the opposition expressed by those who feel a nostalgia for Benedict XVI but do not contest Vatican II. And there is the radical opposition of the Society of St. Pius X or the likes of De Mattei and Gnocchi. This form of opposition rejects the Council and everything that came after it. Despite support from the odd Church figure, the contradictions between the three standpoints are destined to explode and a common front has no chance of lasting.” Introvigne pointed out a surprising trait that many of these circles share: “It is the mythical idealization of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is presented as a “good” leader in contrast to the “bad” leader, the Pope, because of his stance on homosexual people, Muslims and immigrants. Russian foundations that have strong ties with Putin co-operate with the anti-Francis opposition.

The Christian, and specifically Catholic vocation must be in the world but not of the world. But does this mean that we are pilgrims merely passing through the world but not really living in it and relishing it? I envy the individuals who are utterly OK with the world as it is…who fit into the world effortlessly and enjoy it thoroughly. They unself-consciously accept the world as it is and keep moving through it like all is well and all manner of things will be well. I, on the other hand, am disgusted by most of what I see around me. I do not feel at home in the world. I am repulsed by most of what passes for culture in the USA (a nation I nevertheless love). I wish I could be like those who just accept the world as it is and not rage against it all the time. The Marxist Gramsci’s slogan was optimism of the will and pessimism of the intellect. Both the liberal and the conservative, the left and the right constantly rage against the world and see it as utterly flawed and careening towards disaster.

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature this year but he has yet to acknowledge the honor. Dylan appears on the surface to be the kind of guy who effortlessly glides through the world, reveling in it and benefiting from its current zeitgeist-yet he has always also consistently shunned interviews, publicity and being “typed”. His Christian conversion in the 70s appears to have had a lasting impact on his personality and outlook so Dylan in some ways has managed to be totally in the world but not of it. The ex-beatle Paul McCartney, on the other hand, appears to have utterly merged with the zeitgeist. He appears to be totally at ease with the culture of the modern west and has benefited greatly from it. By all accounts McCartney is a decent human being, uncorrputed by his wealth and fame -yet one feels he has not managed to be in the world but not of the world. Instead he is only in the world.

Pope Francis also seems utterly comfortable with the world today. He fits into it like hand to glove. He does not rage against the dying of the light but instead focuses on the good in front of him. Pope Benedict, on the other hand, did not attempt to fit into the modern world but he did not reject it either. He always felt that the world was going the way God wanted it to and our job was to discern God’s will in the signs of the times. That was the message also of the classic spiritual book ” abandonment to divine providence”. Each moment brings God’s gifts to us if we but open our eyes to see and accept them….and that was how one lived fully in the world, relishing it every second but not becoming “of” it….not to get swallowed up into the world and becoming just a piece of the world with no eternal imperishable diamond within.

Massachusetts Official Urged to Resign After Grilling Judicial Nominee about Catholic Faith

From Catholic World News / October 12, 2016 – brought to you by Allan Gillis

(We Catholics represent a real threat to the lunacy of the ascendant Left!)

A ranking public official in Massachusetts is coming under fire for grilling a judicial nominee about his Catholic faith.

Eileen Duff, a member of the Governor’s Council (a body that approves the appointments of new judges), focused on religious issues in her questions of James Gavin Reardon, Jr, who had been nominated for a seat on the Massachusetts Superior Court. Claiming that members of the US Supreme Court have allowed their religious beliefs to influence their decisions, Duff asked Reardon whether his faith would “interfere with your judgment” on some issues. When Reardon declined to discuss his religious beliefs, Duff pressed him: “Are you Roman Catholic?”

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts denounced Duff’s line of questioning as “outrageous, unconscionable, unheard of, unlawful, and unconstitutional.” The group’s executive director, C.J. Doyle, pointed out that Article VI of the US Constitution explicitly prohibits any religious test for public office, and both state and federal law ban discrimination the basis of religion. “If a private employer in the Bay State examined an applicant about his religious faith, he would expose himself to civil liabilities, enforcement proceedings before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and, potentially, criminal penalties in a court of law,” Doyle remarked.

“The presumption behind the question by Duff is that Catholicism is suspect, and Catholics cannot be trusted to impartially administer the law,” Doyle continued. He argued that since “Duff has, obviously, no understanding, respect or sympathy for the constitutional protections and religious freedom guarantees upon which this nation was founded, she ought to resign from office, and stop poisoning the judicial nominating process with her crude prejudices.”

The presidential election is just a few months away and things look bleak. If that monster Hillary Clinton is elected what little freedom to maneuver the Church has to move in the present political climate will be furthered narrowed and its basic doctrines will be considered “hate speech” and then outlawed. IThen there are her positions on abortion, open borders, Islam, and her lies, corruption and on and on…I do not see how any catholic can in good conscience vote for Hillary. If Trump is elected who knows what will happen?Unlike Hillary who is a slave to “progressive” ideology-at least when it suits her pocketbook Trump seems to operate without any discernible ideology or set of principles -except self-aggrandisement. But at least he is not a mealy mouthed cringer who worships at the altar of an ideology–whether it be conservative or “progressive”. True many of his positions are lamentable like his waffily position on climate change. Like most ignoramuses who proudly deny any need for worry about the destruction of the planet’s ecosystems he and they have never read a single scientific paper on the issue. I have never understood how people can so blithely pronounce on something when they have never even read a single paper on the topic? i guess when the science is inconvenient they adopt the nearest loudmouth windbag and follow the fashion of the herd.

If you cannot bring yourself to vote for Clinton or Trump then check out the American Solidarity party which seeks to explicitly adopt an anti-abortion stance and other Catholic principles in its platform.

So a group of “Catholic” investors decide to cower to the Enviro-Pope’s global-warming… I mean global climate-change encyclical by divesting from the evil empire of fossil fuel companies. What a bunch of maroons!

This story in The Pirate today…Boston’s “c”atholic news source – One can almost see the staff writer frothing at the mouth!

“Catholic groups around the world break ties with fossil fuels”

By Staff
Posted: 10/6/2016

Washington D.C., Oct 6, 2016 CNA/EWTN News.- On the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi this week, seven Catholic organizations on five continents announced they are divesting from fossil fuel companies in an effort to care for creation.

The announcement also fell on the last day of the Season of Creation, a Christian celebration and period of reflection on the state of the environment which began with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1.

The move is the largest joint faith-based divestment from fossil fuels to date. Earlier this year, four Catholic orders in Australia announced they were divesting of coal, oil and gas following the call of Pope Francis in his encyclical “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.”

The initiative is also part of a larger, global movement to divest from fossil fuels, one of the largest such movements in history. Almost 600 institutions worth over $3.4 trillion globally have announced divestment commitments, according to gofossilfree.org.

Among the seven Catholic groups divesting is the Diocese of the Holy Spirit of Umuarama in the Brazilian state of Paraná, the first diocese and Latin American institution to make such a move.

Bishop Dom Frei João Mamede Filho of Umuarama said he felt he was following the call of the Gospel and of Pope Francis to care for creation and therefore “protect all forms of life.”

“We can not accommodate and continue allowing economic interests that seek exorbitant profits before the well being of people, to destroy biodiversity and ecosystems, nor continue dictating our energy model based on fossil fuels,” he said.

“We know that Brazil has abundant sources of clean and renewable energy that do not harm our common home. Therefore, I believe that the proposal to turn the Diocese of Umuarama into low-carbon is a practical way to achieve what Laudato Si’ calls for.”

The Diocese is also taking steps to become low-carbon and is part of COESUS, an anti-fracking coalition in Latin America.

One United States group, St. Louis-based SSM Health, was also among the seven groups included in the announcement. Founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, SSM Health is one of the largest non-profit hospital systems in the country.

“As a Mission-based Catholic organization, SSM Health has always been deeply aware of the importance of caring for our natural resources. Our renewed commitment to the environment keeps us consistent in word and deed with the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, our founding congregation, and with the climate change encyclical released by Pope Francis in June 2015,” William P. Thompson, SSM Health President/Chief Executive Officer, said about the announcement.

The other groups included in the divestment announcement include the Federation of Christian Organisations for the International Voluntary Service (FOCSIV) in Italy; the Presentation Society of Australia and Papua New Guinea; the Missionary Society of St. Columban, based in Hong Kong and with a global presence in 14 countries; the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco – Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Milan and Naples (Italy), and the Jesuits in the English Canada province.

The announcement was coordinated by the Global Catholic Climate Movement, a community of lay people, priests, religious, bishops and a global network of member organizations “responding to the Pope’s call to action in the Laudato Si’ encyclical” by “working together on the climate change crisis.”

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“Now all you need are the bakers and the flute players and you can have a festival.” [ a line from HBO’s Rome series by James Purefoy’s excellently-played character Marc Anthony]

I’m a proud climate-change denier! I hold firmly that all this “the sky is falling” stuff is simply designed to have us cry out for more government and less liberty. Period.

I just wish more people would use their heads and NOT consume every fashion and fad that the mass media vomits out. Dogs do that. I am a man. A man created by God in His own image, the same God that created Heaven and Earth…ohh, and I mock the notion that eentsy-weentsy-little humans could ever destroy God’s creation! We might mess it up a little – but we could NEVER destroy it ourselves. We’re just NOT that powerful or important – despite what Nietzsche tried to teach us.

I originally wrote the music for this and recorded it back in 2011, but never liked the guitar and drums on the original recording. This keeps the original vocals and rebuilds the instrumentation, along with added vocals and harmonies. I like this one because it has a bit of a kick and I really liked the guitar track.